eek safety in his dominions possessed not only great
intelligence but a very solid sort of intelligence, and seeing that the
Frenchman was conversant with letters and with learning, proposed that he
should undertake the education of his son, who at that time was nine
years old. Such a proposal was a stroke of fortune for the abbe de
Ganges, and he did not dream of refusing it.

The abbe de Ganges was one of those men who have great mastery over
themselves: from the moment when he saw that his interest, nay, the very
safety of his life required it, he concealed with extreme care whatever
bad passions existed within him, and only allowed his good qualities to
appear. He was a tutor who supervised the heart as sharply as the mind,
and succeeded in making of his pupil a prince so accomplished in both
respects, that the Count of Lippe, making use of such wisdom and such
knowledge, began to consult the tutor upon all matters of State, so that
in course of time the so-called Lamartelliere, without holding any public
office, had become the soul of the little principality.

The countess had a young relation living with her, who though without
fortune was of a great family, and for whom the countess had a deep
affection; it did not escape her notice that her son's tutor had inspired
this poor young girl with warmer feelings than became her high station,
and that the false Lamartelliere, emboldened by his own growing credit,
had done all he could to arouse and keep up these feelings. The countess
sent for her cousin, and having drawn from her a confession of her love,
said that she herself had indeed a great regard for her son's governor,
whom she and her husband intended to reward with pensions and with posts
for the services he had rendered to their family and to the State, but
that it was too lofty an ambition for a man whose name was Lamartelliere,
and who had no relations nor family that could be owned, to aspire to the
hand of a girl who was related to a royal house; and that though she did
not require that the man who married her cousin should be a Bourbon, a
Montmorency, or a Rohan, she did at least desire that he should be
somebody, though it were but a gentleman of Gascony or Poitou.

The Countess of Lippe's young kinswoman went and repeated this answer,
word for word, to her lover, expecting him to be overwhelmed by it; but,
on the contrary, he replied that if his birth was the only obstacle that
opposed their union